


Touch

by 3ndoftheline



Category: Avengers (Comics), Captain America (Comics), Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Winter Soldier (Comics)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Humor, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-16
Updated: 2017-03-26
Packaged: 2018-09-24 22:41:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9790331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3ndoftheline/pseuds/3ndoftheline
Summary: He doesn't talk to anyone, until her. She doesn't touch anyone, until him.





	1. part i

**Author's Note:**

> guess what!!!!! it’s my birthday!!!! and so my gift to you is this new story that i’ve been writing for a few months as a break from Savior. it shouldn’t be too long, probably under 10 parts but we’ll see how i do. this is one of my favorites and the main female character has definitely been on of the funnest to write so i hope you all enjoy :) feedback is encouraged, love you all xx

I wasn’t having a good morning.

Normally, no morning was a _good_ morning. If it was morning, it meant I was up before noon which wasn’t something I normally aspired to do. If, for some horrible reason, I was up before noon, I wasn’t truly functioning until 10:30 or until about I had drank 50% of my body weight in coffee.

And on that fine, beautiful, bright morning it was the ass crack of _fucking_ dawn and there was _no_ coffee, _no_ Nutella, and _no_ Lucky Charms.

“Who the _fuck_ ate all of my Lucky Charms?” I yelled to no one in particular. The kitchen was empty and I was pretty sure half of the team was away on a mission. It didn’t matter.

“Good morning to you too, Hannah,” Clint answered as he sauntered into the kitchen and much too chipper for the godforsaken hour that blinked on the microwave clock. I shot him a withering look as he grinned brightly. “I think Nat and Steve were talking about going healthier in the kitchen. Everything with a sugar count above two grams got trashed.”

“My diet consists of foods that _only_ have a sugar count above two grams,” I whined as I slammed the cabinet shut. “I’ll kill them. I’ll fucking kill them all.”

Clint laughed but it was quickly strangled by my venomous glare. “I may or may not have heard Tony may or may not have hid some poptarts in his lab,” he whispered before he slipped out of the kitchen, a Nutrigrain bar in his hand. I perked up instantly and didn’t even think twice before I practically sprinted out of the kitchen. Tony owed me anyways. Why? I had no idea but I was sure during the two years that I had been a consultant for the team I had saved his ass at least once. So, he owed me a poptart. Or four.

I made it to the lab without any distractions and barely encountered anyone. Again, should have been a huge, massive indicator that my morning was about to go from bad to worse. But I still had a sense of innocence plus I was so focused on sufficing my weekly sugar intake within a single meal I didn’t think of much else.

I made it into Tony’s lab and punched in the known codes and the vibranium infused doors slid open to reveal a sprawling lab that was an engineer’s wet dream. I made a beeline straight for his file cabinets that he _never_ used for files. Low and behold, in the third drawer I found a box of s’mores poptarts with a sticky note on top.

PROPERTY OF TONY STARK – DO NOT TOUCH (HANNAH I’M TALKING TO YOU)

I cocked my head to the right as I stared at the note. I decided for a moment on whether or not to listen to the note. But then decided that I didn’t actually care and crumpled up the offending sticky and immediately pulled out a silver foiled packet. I bumped the cabinet drawer closed and sauntered over to one of the tables. It was filled with wires and parts of a robot that Tony was working on. There was a charred piece of metal that looked like it had held a roll of film but I had no idea, bits of plastic melted to the black twisted metal. I wasn’t sure if this was a new project or him just tinkering. I learned over the years not to ask.

I wandered over to his main desk where three monitors sat, all with different images flickering across the screens. The middle monitor caught my eye though. An unsent email, meant for me.

_Hannah,_

_Take a look at this file, I probably should’ve given you the paper file but I’m too lazy and it’s covered with bolognese stains and I don’t have the time to explain nor do I feel like it. See if you can make any sense of the file. I’ll forward the email from the old man that he sent me, maybe it’ll help. Doubt it, though._

_Thanks,_

_Tony_

_P.S. Don’t touch my poptarts._

_~~~~~~~~Original Message~~~~~~~~_

_Subject: File 145879 Level A_

_Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2016 15:36 EST_

_From: Steven Rogers <srogers1918@avengermail.com>_

_To: Tony Stark <onyourstarkgetsetgo@starkmail.com>_

_Tony,_

_The file I just had Jason drop off is classified intel on a recent mission Natasha went on. It was the Jakarta mission. I think it’s about Bucky, possibly a location on him but I’m not sure. There’s a lot I don’t understand. Can you make sense of it?_

_Thank you,_

_Steve_

_P.S. Don’t show anyone this, its top secret and I’d like to keep it that way. Your discretion is greatly appreciated._

My interest instantly piqued as two major things caught my eye. _Major classified intel_ and the fact that _I wasn’t supposed to know about it_. I immediately sat down and was about to go to town when I hesitated over the mouse.

First, I wasn’t even in my lab so Tony’s computers probably wouldn’t be able to handle the software I would have to run. Second, if Steve stressed how I wasn’t supposed to see it, or anyone else for that matter, maybe there was a good reason for it.

_But Tony was going to send it to you._

I stared at the screen. I knew what I was going to do. It was the only logical thing to do in my mind. Then again, it was also six am so I wasn’t too sure what was logical and what wasn’t.

I sent the email and stood up from his chair and hurried towards the door, not before swiping the whole box of poptarts.

I take everything back. I was having a _great_ morning.

***

When I settled down in my office which I humbly called The Cave because…honestly? It really was like a cave.

I had found this hidden door about six months into my time with the Avengers and it led to a room about twice the size of my apartment. It had amazing cell reception, perfect spots to plug in my computers and it didn’t have any windows which meant that I could never see the dust that littered my computer screens. What more could a girl want?

I plopped down on my leather chair and booted up my computer and within seconds all five monitors were up and running and the gentle hum that often comforted me filled the quiet crevices of the room. Dropping the poptarts onto the counter, I typed through my security and fished out the email I had sent myself.

I clicked the link to the file and instantly a plethora of pages and information popped up. I began sifting through the file and after a quick search, I pulled up the files for the Jakarta mission that Natasha had been sent on last week.

I had remembered Natasha had been bitching and moaning about the mission. She apparently had to seduce some sleazy politician into revealing the price for selling US secrets and who the buyer was. It was a simple mission in retrospect to the others that had been thrown around before. Natasha was granted access to an art gala within Jakarta and she found her way into the politicians mind and _boom_ she walked away with a buyer, a location of the drop, the flash drive and an unwanted phone number.

It seemed pretty clean cut. Sam and Steve raided the drop and managed to take in four of Russia’s top hitting crime bosses and made a huge dent in another Russian crime family that was reigning terror on the rich of Moscow. Either way, it didn’t seem like anything that warranted a second look.

The file Tony had sent me but not really sent me held something completely different. It was a file on a supposed hit from some undercover SHIELD agent planted deep in the reserves of Hydra. Apparently, one of Hydra’s new and improved assets was planning on taking out a computer engineer from France just as DSGCE had planned to pull her out of her position at some engineering giant and move her to a safe house in northern Italy.

I frowned as I scoured the file for anything else but all I found were schematics on the planned route and any other excess escape routes or other possible routes. There were terrain maps, detailed descriptions of the vehicles being taken and a full inventory on what soldiers DSGCE were going to use for transport and what security was to be added to the trip. There was a myriad of information on how the mission was to be dealt with, but nothing on how the asset was to get to the computer engineer, nor how they planned to execute the assassination. It made me shiver how Hydra knew so much already about the mission that hadn’t even been executed yet.

“What are you hiding, Miss Computer Engineer,” I muttered as I turned my attention to the target. “And what the hell do you have to do with Bucky.”

I knew very little about Bucky. I had come into the team after the civil war. Bucky was supposed to be in Wakanda, frozen like a popsicle in some cryotank. A year ago, he somehow broke out or someone got him out and he had been MIA since. There had been isolated events that would send Sam and Steve running off for about two weeks and they’d come back dejected, annoyed and injured. I never knew what happened, and I never asked. There were some things I didn’t need to know. Bucky Barnes was the definition of a touchy subject. Every time his name was mentioned Steve would get all stony faced and Tony looked like he was about to have an aneurysm. So, again, I learned not to bring it up. But how he was connected to a computer engineer from France? I had no idea.

Her name wasn’t stated within the file but after a quick employee search within the engineering company, I found her. Carol Raulson. 34 years old, recently divorced and hasn’t had contact with her kids in the past two years. She worked graveyard shifts mostly and then worked as a waitress during the day at a café in Paris.

I dug deeper, going back ten years into the company and her part within all of it. She had been on Project Insight, which wasn’t exactly a surprise. A lot of people had been employed for the project but not a lot of them knew what they were building or what the purpose of it was. They were handed a check and given orders and that was it. She had worked on a few other government projects, though she never had a big enough part or high enough clearance to garner the attention of Hydra. She was too quiet, too in the shadows, too low level. She wasn’t important enough.

I frowned as I began searching through the mission Natasha had been on. I started digging into the politician’s life, his connections, his past, and his contacts, his everything. I tapped into his phone and found he had been in contact with an unknown number that had to be his buyer for about two weeks and their texts were sparse with as little information as possible. Just enough to scrape together a location and a time and date that Sam and Steve used to drop in on the Russians. There were longer phone calls that I was able to tap into and found their conversations mainly one sided. A Russian gave the orders and the politician followed them. I scoffed and was about to make a comment about how spineless politicians were until I came across a deleted call. After a quick dig, I was able to pull up the deleted audio file.

“Are we alone?” The politician asked, his usual wavering voice was suddenly strong.

“Of course, we always have been,” the Russian replied in a rough voice.

“You know what I mean,” the politician snapped. “Are we being recorded?”

The Russian growled beneath his breath and he sounded oddly like an annoyed teddy bear. “We never have been.”

“Good.” The politician cleared his throat. “You’re stalling Kotevsky. You’re wasting my time and I’m not interested.”

 _Kotevsky?_ I quickly checked the names of the Russians Sam and Steve had picked up. Kotevsky was not a name on the list.

“I am not wasting your time,” Kotevsky snarled as his voice crackled over the receiver. “What you ask for…it takes time.”

“And what I offer is priceless,” the politician shot back. “I am giving you a chance to make things right. To end four years of mistakes. I am giving you a chance to start anew. Are you willing to give that up over an issue with pricing?”

“No,” he answered quickly. “You ask for a billion…that takes time that takes patience.”

“I can take my offer somewhere else–”

“ _No!_ No, we will pay.” Now Kotevsky sounded nervous, cautious almost.  “Give us two days and the money will be ready.”

“You have thirty-six hours.”

And with that, the conversation ended. I checked the time of the call.

10th of October, 06:14.

“Shit,” I swore under my breath as I stared at my monitor. _36 hours_. “Shit, shit, shit, shit.”

“Hannah?”

“Shit!” I yelped as I jumped about a foot in my seat. I whipped my head up to the offending disturbance and found Sam leaning against the doorway, his eyes wide in alarm. “Sam! God! What is wrong with you?”

“Nothing! I knocked like four times, everybody’s been calling you. Where the hell have you been?”

I furrowed my brow and quickly grabbed my phone. Sure enough, I had about twenty missed calls and most of them were from Steve. “Where’s Steve?” I asked as my eyes flicked to the time on my phone. _Fuck_.

“Well, that’s what I was here–”

“ _Sam_ ,” I snapped. “Where is Steve?”

“He’s in tower four, basement level. He’s been looking–”

I didn’t wait to hear the rest of Sam’s sentence. I shot up and grabbed my phone and bolted out of the room. Sam stood back as I slammed the door shut behind me and sprinted down the hall.

I had never run so fast in my life, and I wasn’t even exaggerating. By the time I got to the elevator I was heaving and could barely get my command out to FRIDAY. “Fuck, I need to get out more,” I huffed to myself as I leaned against the cool metal interior of the elevator.

“Due to your elevated heart rate and blood pressure, I would advise extra physical activity and a change in diet.” FRIDAY’s pleasant voice filtered through the speakers. I gaped at the AI and fumbled for a response as I realized I had just gotten told by a computer that I was fat.

“Rude,” I muttered as the doors pinged open, revealing the basement level of tower four. I quickly exited the elevator when I suddenly realized I actually had no idea which _part_ of the basement Steve was in. The basement was silent. Deadly silent. Although you’d think that would be a norm considering that it was a basement, but nearly every part of the Avengers facility was full of people. It just came with the job. So to see it this quiet, it was unsettling.

I swallowed and crept forward, looking for any signs of life. None. On either side of the hallway. Repressing a shiver, I unlocked my phone and checked my messages from Steve, hoping that they would give me some sort of inclination on where he was.

_I need you down in the basement. ASAP. Code White._

_Hannah, did you hear me? Code White. Get to the basement. Now. I need you in room 12._

_Answer me._

_Answer your phone. Now. That’s an order._

“What the hell is a code white?” I muttered to myself as I stared at the texts. I had never heard of a code black in my life. Code blue? Sure, I watched Grey’s Anatomy. Code red? Obviously, I wasn’t an imbecile. Code white? Never in my life. But whatever it was, it was bad enough for Cap to use it so I spurred myself to motion and hurried down the hall to room 12.

I reached an unassuming gray door and quickly rapped my knuckled against the metal. I barely touched my knuckles to the door for a second knock when it swung open to reveal a stony faced Natasha.

“Nice of you to show up.”

“I need to talk to you and Steve. Now.” I completely ignored her snarky comment and pushed past her. I scanned the room and found Steve walking towards me, his eyes flashing with a dangerous glint.

“Where the hell have you been?” He hissed before he even reached me. “Do you understand–?”

“Listen,” I held my hand up for him to stop, “lecture me all you want later. But you need to hear this. Now.”

Steve looked like he was about to argue but Natasha placed a soft hand on his forearm before she turned to me. “What’s going on?”

I sucked in a deep breath and looked at Steve and tried to ignore the frigid stare he was sending my way. “That drop you and Sam went on, where you canned those Russians, it was a diversion.”

“What drop?” Steve asked with a perfectly pulled confusion face. It was his _I have no idea what you’re talking about because you don’t have the clearance_ look. So I gave him my _I know exactly what you’re talking about because even though I don’t have the clearance I still saw exactly what I wasn’t supposed to see_ look. It took him two seconds for his face to smooth over as realization dawned on him. He whirled around to glare at someone behind him. “Stark,” he growled. But before he could make a move, I interjected.

“Again, scolding later. This is much more important.” I tugged on his jacket sleeve and bounced on the balls of my feet. I barely registered the burns and tears that littered the jacket and the blood that speckled Steve’s shirt. Steve turned around reluctantly as his jaw clenched and unclenched.

“Go on,” he bit out. I wrung my fingers as I struggled to compose my thoughts.

“The drop, that Natasha got from the Jakarta mission. It was a fake. That’s not the actual deal.”

“Hannah, we received credible intel on the politician. He’s been dirty before. Steve and Sam brought on a huge loss on the Markolinski family who we believed for quite some time now had ties to Hydra. That mission was anything but fake,” Natasha explained gently but her eyes warned me to tread carefully. I was pretty much telling her that the information she gathered had been wrong. It was like caging a newly-woken grizzly after its hibernation. It was suicide. But she needed to understand.

“I’m not saying the whole mission was a waste. That politician is still dirty. But he’s planning something much, _much_ bigger. The drop was a diversion, to get you guys off his trail. The real drop is happening tonight. More specifically, in twelve hours.”

“Hannah,” Steve’s voice was suddenly measured as his face transformed into marble. His Captain face. “What do you know?”

I sighed. “Not much,” I admitted miserably. “I didn’t have enough time to really look; I needed to find you first. But, I was looking into the file that you had sent Tony. The one that you thought had something to do with Bucky’s location? Well, Carol Raulson–”

“Who the hell is that?”

“–the computer engineer,” I shot a look at Natasha who merely shot me an even darker look. “I have no idea why Hydra has a target on her back. She’s not important. There might be more to her, but she barely had enough government clearance to be considered for Project Insight. She only got on because another engineer dropped out and they needed another body to fill the space. Other than that she’s worked on low level stuff for the French, nothing major. Then, I looked into the politician and found the same things Nat did. He had a buyer, they exchanged phone calls, and the Russian was calling all of the shots. Then I found a deleted audio file, a phone call. It was between the Russian, a guy named Kotevsky and the politician. And it tells a whole different story.”

“Kotevsky?” Steve shared a look of confusion with Natasha. “I’ve never heard of him.”

“I know. Me neither. I hadn’t had the chance to dig into his life, but I’ll do that later. But, the phone call had the politician calling the shots. The politician told Kotevsky that he was stalling, that he had something that would right a mistake that happened two years ago. His price was a billion, something Kotevsky was having trouble with. The politician gave him thirty-six hours to come up with the money. That was twenty-four hours ago.”

Steve muttered something under his breath as his fingers carded through his hair. “So we have twelve hours to find the new drop site and figure out what the politician is selling.”

“It’s something big. Something worth a billion dollars.” Natasha stared at a fixed point behind my shoulder and her eyes darkened before they quickly flashed back to mine. It happened so quick I wondered if I had imagined it.

“But what I don’t understand,” I continued with a quick clearing of my throat, “is why you thought Bucky’s location was in Carol Raulson’s file.”

Steve swallowed thickly as his eyes, same as Natasha, flickered to something behind me before he looked back at me. I was floored by the pain that swirled in his blue irises. It was so raw, so ancient I wanted to curl him into my arms and comfort him for the next one hundred years. “I thought that if we could find the origin of the assassin, or at least where his safe house was it would…we could be closer to find Bucky.” He sighed as his hand rubbed the back of his neck. “But, uh, that’s not necessary anymore.”

My eyebrows shot up as I stared at him. “What do you mean?”

Steve didn’t answer me. Instead, he stared over my shoulder. With a furrowed brow I turned around and froze immediately in my spot.

There, fifty feet behind me, was Bucky Barnes.

At least, I thought it was. I had only seen grainy pictures of him on a TV and an old military issued photo from the forties. But the long, shaggy hair and the piercing blue eyes were unmistakable. And considering the suffocating tension that I had somehow managed to breeze right by hit me like a ton of bricks and I knew. It was him.

“Oh,” I squeaked. “I see. Um, okay. That’s uh, that’s…cool, good. Yes, good. So, um where did you find him?”

“Cryotank in Siberia.” Tony spoke this time, his voice dripped venom. I couldn’t help but flinch.

“Has he been active?” I asked.

“Don’t know,” Natasha shrugged. “He hasn’t spoken a word since we woke him up. We’re not even sure if he’s him. He nearly tried to kill Tony once he was awake.”

“That would explain that get-up,” I muttered as my brain registered the buckles and braces that he was tied in. His arms were stretched out and attached by chains to the electromagnetic walls of his holding cells. His legs were bound by vibranium braces that covered his whole lower leg and a chest brace that was leather but I knew it was vibranium and Antimidium infused. I had created those braces myself. Electrodes were connected to his shoulders, neck, chest and back. Safety precaution but I knew if he so much as tried to make a sudden movement so much electricity would zap through those electrodes it would kill a normal human. I wasn’t sure how Bucky would react, but I knew he would be stunned for a bit, long enough to be detained and restrained.

“Yeah,” Tony spit out. “Should have done that four years ago when we had the chance.”

“Tony,” Steve warned but he sounded tired. So damn tired. I opened my mouth to make some sort of comment when suddenly Tony’s words stuck in my brain.

_Should have done that four years ago when we had the chance._

_Four years ago._

“A mistake,” I whispered as everything abruptly snapped into place. _A mistake_.

“What was that?” Natasha asked but her voice was muddled as my brain kicked into overdrive.

“A mistake that happened four years ago,” I said in a soft voice as I stared at him, Bucky Barnes. “He was the mistake that happened four years ago.”

“Who, Bucky?” Steve asked as I stared, my mouth agape.

Tony scoffed. “Sorry to burst your bubble, sweetheart. But the Winter Soldier was created in 1945. Not four years ago. So I don’t know what you’re going on about but–”

“No,” I interrupted him as I turned to look at Steve, pleading for him to understand. “Four years ago, what happened?”

Steve furrowed his brows as I saw his brain working. “Uh, SHIELD fell?”

I nodded furiously. “Yes, because of…?”

“Hydra?” Steve tilted his head and I wanted to scream.

“The Winter Soldier, Steve. The Winter Soldier was the final piece of the puzzle. He was the catalyst, the beginning of the end.” I could barely understand myself I was talking so fast. “But after the Battle at the Triskelion, the Winter Soldier abandoned post. He went AWOL. He broke protocol and reverted from the Winter Soldier to something else.”

Steve’s eyes suddenly widened as he saw what I saw. “Oh my God,” he whispered as his gaze fixated on Bucky.

“What is it, Steve?” Natasha asked as she looked between us with an annoyed expression.

“Bucky is Hydra’s mistake,” I said. “The politician told Kotevsky that Kotevsky could right a mistake that happened four years ago. I know we don’t know much on Kotevsky, but we already know that the guys Steve and Sam got had known ties to Hydra. What if Kotevsky does too? What if he had something to do with the Winter Soldier, with Bucky and the Battle at the Triskelion? If he did, if he somehow is to blame for Bucky becoming something other than the asset, wouldn’t that be something he’d want to fix?”

“But how do we know that Kotevsky had something to do with Hydra? This is all speculation, you have no actual proof,” Natasha said as she glanced at Steve.

“We’ll find it.” Steve’s voice was clipped as he whirled around to face the three of us. His eyes locked with mine and I could see the desperation that filled his normally cool gaze. “Hannah, can you find something on Kotevsky?”

I nodded. “Probably. It’s, um, it’s probably not gonna be completely…you know, _legal_ if you know what I mean.”

“I don’t care. Do what you have to do. Do what you do best. There’s a reason you’re on this team. Now prove it.”

“No pressure,” I muttered to myself as I turned to Tony. “Got a tablet I can borrow real quickly?”

Tony nodded as he nodded to the table towards the back of the room. I squeezed past Steve as I made a quick beeline for the tablet. I swiped up the clear glass square and the moment my fingers touched the screen, the world was at my fingertips.

I typed Kotevsky into the search bar and had FRIDAY run the name through every database Tony had access to. I hesitated for a moment, then ran another search using Carol Raulson and waited as FRIDAY ran through the different databases.

As I waited, I watched as Tony, Natasha and Steve spoke furiously with one another while they kept glancing at Bucky. I followed their gaze and nearly fell off the table when I saw his blue eyes fixated on me. They were intense, even from fifty feet away and all of the hairs on my body stood up.

The tablet pinged in my hand and snapped me from my revere. I looked down and frowned as NO RESULTS FOUND blinked on the screen for both Kotevsky and Carol Raulson. I tapped the retry button and expanded the search to global level, including underground networks that SHIELD wasn’t even sure existed. When I looked up again, Bucky was still staring at me and a thought popped up in my mind. What if I didn’t need to search online, what if I had a personal google search engine right in front of me?

I set the tablet down as I slid off the table. I met Bucky’s hard stare as I got closer to his cell.

“I wouldn’t even try, Snowden,” Tony called and I winced at the nickname. “Frosty doesn’t know how to speak, we’ve already established that.”

I ignored Tony as I approached Bucky’s cell. I watched his arm as it tightened the moment I breached the twenty feet mark. I immediately stopped as I stood before him, hands at my side. “Do you know who Kotevsky is? Or Carol Raulson?” I asked softly. I knew he heard though. He merely blinked at me, his mouth stayed in a thin line. “Please,” I whispered. I could have sworn I saw his jaw clench but within the same second, his face was smooth and unaffected.

I swallowed and shook my head and was about to turn around when I heard a single word, uttered so softly I thought I had imagined it.

“Alone.”

I turned around quickly and narrowed my eyes at him. His eyes flashed towards Steve, Natasha and Tony who were only half paying attention. His lips barely moved as he spoke, barely loud enough for me to hear. “If you want answers, we have to be alone.”

I barely breathed as I stared at him for a heartbeat before I spoke. “Uh, hey, guys. Is it cool if I have the room?”

“What?” Tony snapped his head in my direction. “And leave you alone with this maniac? No way.”

“Tony–”

“He tried to _kill me_ , Hannah.” Tony hissed as his hand passed over his neck. Purple bruises hid beneath the collar of his shirt. “He’s unstable, we don’t even know if he’s out of his brainwashing yet. I’m not leaving you alone with him.”

“Trust me,” I begged as I turned to face them. “Please. Give me the room and I can give you answers. Just, please.”

Steve glanced at Tony who looked like he was about to combust. Steve then looked at me before he sighed. “Sorry, kid. Tony’s right. It’s too dangerous.”

I snarled as frustration curled in my stomach. I heard the distant ping of the tablet and a plan formed in my mind. With a sigh and I rolled my shoulders back and nodded curtly. “Fine,” I bit out as I stalked to the tablet. I grabbed the tablet and stared at the screen as NO RESULTS FOUND flashed across the screen again. I gritted my teeth and tapped out of the search engine. “Sorry, Cap,” I said as I found my way into room 12’s mainframe. “You said I have to do what I do best to get what you need.”

Steve stared at me before he suddenly spurred into action. “Hannah, don’t you dare–” his voice was cut off as a blank wall separated me from him. I tapped furiously on the screen as I cut off all cell service from the room and isolated the room from the rest of the facility. Security feeds shut off and I rerouted FRIDAY to ignore commands from room 12. Finally, I blocked all visuals and the clear wall turned gray as Bucky and I became well and truly alone.

“God, I’m so fired,” I muttered as I brought the tablet down by my side. I glanced towards the wall that I had created and could just imagine what was going on on the other side.

“You’re Ramsey.” His voice was raspy, like it hadn’t been used in years. It was deeper than I imagined, like warm honey.

“Who?” I tilted my head at him.

“You’re Ramsey,” he repeated. “You were my mission.”

“Oh, cool. I usually never meet my assassins so this is refreshing,” I smiled the fakest smile I could muster before I sighed. “Listen, I don’t know who started this rumor of Ramsey, but it’s just that. A rumor. I am not this fabled Ramsey, in fact I’m actually the exact opposite of Ramsey. Ramsey tries to hide I really don’t have shame in what I do.”

“What you just did,” he nodded to the wall, “that’s something Ramsey can do. I read the file. I know it.”

I had to hide the eye roll. “I don’t care what file you read or analyzed or whatever. I have no idea what else I have to say. I am _not_ Ramsey. I am Hannah. Simple, old Hannah who would really _love_ this answers you mentioned so I know that I didn’t just put my whole career on the line for nothing.”

Bucky stared at me; his blue eyes were sheer sheets of ice. They were empty, hollow. That’s what freaked me out more. How lifeless he was. Just a shell of a man. “You’re not going to find Kotevsky or Carol Raulson in the system.”

“Yeah, got that far,” I muttered as I waved the tablet at him. “Figured as much. Even used all of my not so legal sources, too. So, what have you got for me?”

“Not much,” he muttered and I felt myself deflate. “Kotevsky…he’s familiar to me. I don’t know why.” He frowned and I watched as his muscles tensed, bulging against the straps. He didn’t wince though I knew a warning zap of electricity had just been administered.

“Do you have memories?” I asked cautiously. I had read Bucky’s file. Only the SHIELD version, which was sparse if that. I wasn’t prolific in neuroscience or cognitive science but I had a feeling his file was far more in depth than the one that was presented to me. I figured that I had the actual person in front of me I might as well divulge some extra information along the way.

“I don’t know.” His frown deepens. “He wasn’t Hydra, I know that. Pieces, I see him where it’s cold.”

“You were held in the Ural mountains so that would make sense,” I spoke mostly to myself but I had a feeling he heard.

“And Carol Raulson isn’t real,” he added.

I rolled my eyes to the ceiling as I tried to calm down. “Wonderful. So I’m supposed to tell Captain America that this engineer who doesn’t really matter but Hydra wants dead doesn’t actually exist? That he was chasing a dead lead the whole time? Great. You know how that’s going to go, don’t you?”

“Hydra didn’t want her dead. She was my mission.”

“Oh, oh! Right, so sorry, _my bad_. So Hydra wasn’t going to kill her. You were.”

“I wasn’t going to kill her. She was my mission.”

“What were you going to do, take her out for dinner instead?”

He wrinkled his nose. “No. She was my _mission_.”

“Okay, what exactly does that mean?” He tilted his head in question and I tried to hold back my sigh of exasperation. “This whole ‘my mission’ bullshit you keep spewing. Does this mean you were going to kidnap her, ask for her autograph, what were you planning to do with her? Because last time you said that, I’m pretty sure you were in the process of rearranging ol’ Cap’s face on top of the Triskelion.”

There was a flicker of surprise in his eyes before it morphed into blank anger as he regarded me with narrow eyes. He displayed more emotion in that one second time span than I had seen since I had walked into room 12. “How do you know that?”

“I read the transcript. He was wired, you know that right. That’s like, SHIELD 101 right there.”

“How did you read the transcript? That’s classified.”

I snorted. “What the hell are you, my boss? I read lots of stuff I’m not supposed to. That’s why I’m here.”

“That doesn’t make you very trustworthy.”

“That’s not my goal,” I spit back. “Besides, you’re one to talk about trust. Last time I checked I’m pretty sure we’re tied for the least trustful in the room right about now.”

Bucky looked like he wanted to argue but instead he sat back – as much as the bonds allowed him – and rolled his lips into his mouth. “She was my mission,” he repeated. His voice was hard with a dangerous edge, but there was a hint of confusion. “I don’t know what that means. I just know she was the last mission.”

I sighed and sat down on the ground before him. The cement was cold and seeped through my leggings but I ignored it as I settled the tablet in my lap. “Alright, Tinman. Let’s see what we can figure out here.” I looked down at the failed searches and an idea blossomed in my mind. “Do you remember anything about your mission? Maybe a name, a location, a time? Anything?”

He furrowed his brow. There was a beat of silence and I wondered if he wasn’t going to answer when he finally spoke. “Jolene.” There was a hint of a spark in his eyes when he looked at me. “Jolene Kaplan. I don’t know who that is, but I remember that name.”

I nodded encouragingly as I typed the name into the general search engine. I ran the search and received results instantly. Three million of them. “Okay, that’s a start,” I mumbled. I glanced at Bucky who was staring at his knee with such severe concentration I was worried he’d pop a blood vessel. “Anything else?” I prompted as I tried to keep the urgency from my voice. I didn’t want to freak him out or anything. Again, I wasn’t a neuroscientist I had no idea how delicate his brain was or what his boundaries were and I was not about to test them.

“It was urgent. Mission prep was only two days and I was in the process of being briefed, I think before I blacked out and woke up here.”

“What happened?”

He gave a noncommittal shrug. “Relapsed, had a heart attack, who knows.” _Ah, the Winter Soldier has a sense of humor_ , I mused to myself as I tried to hide my grin beneath the curtain of my hair.

“Take me back to the briefing. Was there any important information that stuck out to you? Something that could make or break the mission?”

There was a beat of silence again that only frayed my nerves even more. “France,” he murmured. “Something about France.”

I nodded as I typed in France, which only narrowed it down to about a million. “Fantastic,” I muttered sarcastically. I pulled at my lip as my brain a thousand miles a minute trying to figure out a plan. _France, something about France_. “Carol worked in France,” I whispered to myself as a small idea began to form.

“Carol Raulson doesn’t exist,” Bucky reminded me with a hint of annoyance and I had to sit on my hand to keep myself from adding a jolt of electricity to his bonds.

“On paper she does,” I snapped. “Jolene, she exists though. Jolene is in France, so is Carol.” I looked at Bucky with wide eyes. “Could Jolene and Carol be the same person?”

Bucky considered it for a moment. “I guess. That doesn’t make much sense–”

“It does, though,” I said excitedly as I sat up on my knees. “Carol is supposedly an engineer based out of France. SHIELD gets intel that Hydra is putting out a hit on her, but what if the hit is a kidnapping? Carol is actually Jolene, someone completely different, someone Hydra wants.”

“What are you saying; my mission was to kidnap Jolene?”

I shrugged. “Why not? It’s obviously she was hiding from something. Who else makes a fake identity and stays low level at an engineering firm for five years?”

“Someone who wants to hide.” He was finally catching on. “Is Carol – or Jolene, French?”

“Carol is French. But Jolene…Jolene, I have no idea. I need to find out though.” I frowned as I began to pace, my fingers tapped along the tablet, typing nonsense into the search bar. “I have to get a hold of the mission file.”

“My missions file?” Bucky sounded incredulous. “Can you hack into Hydra and find it?”

“Sure, sure,” I muttered. “I’ve done it before. But it won’t be so simple.” Bucky gave me the _what the fuck are you talking about_ look so I decided to indulge him. “If it’s your mission file, it’ll be under the files of the Winter Soldier. Your file is sealed off, major. Surrounded by layers of interfaces and AI’s all intent on keeping nosey people like me, out. But I can hack into it. But once I do, that means a self-destruct program will set off and I have thirty seconds to gather all of the information I need. That’s not nearly enough time.”

“So, it’s useless.”

“No, nothing is useless,” I admonished. “I can do it if I have direct contact with the source. Then I can deactivate the self-destruct program temporarily, long enough for me to download the files.”

“What do you mean by the sources? You want direct contact to Hydra’s mainframe?” A disbelieving laugh left Bucky when I didn’t respond. “Are you crazy? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Yes. Which is exactly why I should do it.”

Bucky shook his head as he gaped at me. He was absolutely right. In order for me to do what I want to do, I’d have to literally be on the computer within Hydra that held access to the mainframe, and then download the files I needed _after_ hacking into the Winter Soldier mission files. I was looking at least an hour and that was practically impossible with Hydra. I was asking for death. “You’re asking for a death wish,” Bucky accused and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

“Probably. But do you have another plan just lying about?” He was silent which was all I needed. “Exactly. If there is any chance of figuring this out, I have to get to those mission files.”

“And how do you plan to do that? Just waltzing in to a Hydra base and asking politely to steal their files?”

“I’m not stealing,” I snapped. “I’m borrowing. Indefinitely. And I’ll figure it out.”

“Can you even shoot a gun?”

“Of course I can,” I protested hotly. I was lying, 100%. Whenever I heard a gunshot I wanted to pass out. Bucky seemed disbelieving but I merely scowled and turned my face away. I was not about to let him have the satisfaction of being right. “Anyways, why do you care? Not like you can do anything about it.”

He gave a small, noncommittal shrug. “I know the repercussions of sneaking into a Hydra base. You don’t.”

“Who says I don’t?” I shot back with folded arms and a heavy scowl. “And besides, who says you _do_? Snuck into a lot of Hydra bases in your heyday?”

He shook his head and a dark look passed over his face as his jaw tightened. “No. But I was the repercussion.”

I swallowed and nodded as I suddenly realized who I was sitting in front of. A man who could very easily kill me seven different ways with his pinkie if he wanted to. Instead of dwelling on that chilling fact, I forced myself to stare at my tablet and think of the other chilling fact; finding my way into a Hydra base. “Alright, so if I were to _hypothetically_ sneak into a Hydra base undetected and have about an hour to myself, how would I do it.”

“You can’t. It’s impossible without getting killed first.”

“Hypothetically,” I snapped and flashed him a hard glare. He pressed his lips together and rolled his eyes to the sky. As if _he_ was getting exasperated with _me_.

“Well, _hypothetically_ , you’d have to find a Hydra base that had direct access to the mainframe, which isn’t common. Most of Hydra’s facilities hold bits of the mainframe and documents pertaining to their purpose but they don’t have enough connections to the mainframe for what you have planned. Once you find the base – which you probably won’t – you have to plan a coordinated attack based off the blueprints you can obtain of the building. You most likely have to get a mole – who will probably be discovered and killed – in there to scout out escape routes and tunnels that aren’t shown on the prints. Once you have those, then you can spend weeks planning a mission that will evidently fail because missions never ever follow the plan you create, and once you do that you go to the base and then maybe get a half an hour tops before you escape with your life and only some of your limbs, if you’re lucky.”

I blinked at him. “Wow. Has anyone ever told you what an absolute ray of fucking sunshine you are?”

He smirked. “Comes with the territory. Just being realistic.”

I rolled my eyes as I began tapping away at my tablet. I was mostly writing code for absolutely nothing, but it helped me think. “This actually isn’t too hard,” I muttered to myself. “I can find the mainframe easy enough, or a way around it. I won’t have to worry about getting in–”

“You definitely have to worry about getting in.”

I sighed as I stared at Bucky. “No, I don’t. You said yourself that having a plan is useless because it never goes as planned. So I’ll just go in with no plan, save myself a few weeks of mission prep.”

“Go in with _no mission plan_?” Bucky spluttered before he laughed out loud, harsh and disbelieving. “You’re officially the stupidest, craziest, most idiotic person I’ve ever met in my life. Do you know _anything_ about missions or even coordinating highly covert ops like this?”

“Excuse you,” I miffed as I tried to swallow the hurt. I knew how to do my job, probably better than anyone else and I almost wanted to punch the skeptical look off of his face. “Last time I checked, I’m the one _not_ strapped into a million belts and shackles with absolutely no room for any movement. I’m also not the one who got captured from their own mission they were supposedly planning. So while yours seemed to have failed, and mine hasn’t, I’d keep the fucking comments to yourself.”

His face turned to marble and I knew I had hit a soft spot but I couldn’t care less. His ego was suffocating me and I was having enough of it. “You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into. What _they_ can do. I’ve seen it, I remember. Trust me, this is the _last_ thing you want to do.” I was shocked at the severity in his voice. It cut through me like a knife.

“Why does it matter?” I shot back. “Not like you can stop me, anyways.”

“I’ll tell Steve.”

I blanched at that. Steve would murder me, or even worse, _lecture me_. “Please,” I scoffed as I attempted to act nonchalant. “I don’t take orders from Steve or anyone else in this building so go ahead.” It was true, slightly. Steve did give the orders, mostly. Technically, he was my sort of boss I just chose to ignore what he said most of the time.

Bucky raised an eyebrow curiously. “Really? The way he was going off in here could’ve fooled me.”

I scowled. “Well if you had such suspicions, why didn’t you say anything?”

Any sort of semblance of a smile was gone as he glared at the ground; an ancient sadness clouded his eyes. “It’s better if I don’t say anything?”

“Is it?” I was surprised at how soft my voice had become. “If you hadn’t said anything to me I would still have my face stuck on my tablet fruitlessly searching a name that didn’t exist.”

“Yeah,” he frowned, “yet now I somehow got in your head that going on an impossible mission with no sort of mission prep is somehow a good idea.”

I shrugged. “Really, that’s not your biggest problem.” Both of his eyebrows shot up until I nodded to the thick cuffs that kept him locked in place.

“Oh.” He sighed as he flexed his fingers. “Trust me, I’ve been through worse.”

“I don’t doubt that,” I mumbled. I threw a glance at the invisible wall and cringed at the thought of what was going on on the other side. “You want to tell them, or should I?” I threw my thumb in the direction of the wall.

He shook his head. “Your mission.” It didn’t really sound like my mission, it sounded like he was giving up.

I sighed but didn’t push him. He made his decision. He didn’t need me badgering him about it. I opened the tablet and began to run the code to unlock the room. In the ten seconds it took for the program to run, I turned to Bucky and looked in his eyes as I whispered, “Thank you.”

He didn’t respond. But I thought I saw him smile, which was enough for me.


	2. part ii

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Can you ground someone who doesn’t do anything?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here it is!!! (finally) part two of touch for all of you lovely people. i watched beauty and the beast the other night and i was just so happy and came home and just banged out the rest of this so i hope you all enjoy. feedback is appreciated greatly xx

“You’re grounded.”

I blinked in shock. About a million reactions ran through my system before I chose the most professional one. I laughed. “That’s the first thing you say to me?” I snickered as I stared at an amused yet affronted Tony, an annoyed Natasha and a fuming Steve. “I’m not a child, Tony. You can’t… _ground me_.”

“Well, I can’t fire you, can I?” Tony shot back and I realized very quickly that although his initial response was comical, nothing about _their_ reactions were comical. I was in deep shit and I knew it.

“I mean, you _can_ –”

“–and he _should_ ,” Steve growled and I had to refrain from rolling my eyes.

“As much as I’d love to,” Tony shot me a hard look, “we need you.”

“Do we at least get to compromise on my inevitable form of punishment?” I cut in, waving my hand to regain attention.

“Depends on what you’ve got.” Steve folded his arms over his chest but I didn’t miss how his eyes flickered over to Bucky.

I sighed and tapped my fingers against the back of the tablet as I struggled to form my thoughts together. “Carol Raulson – the computer engineer, isn’t real. She doesn’t exist.”

“That’s fantastic,” Natasha mumbled sarcastically and I resisted the urge to throw a few choice words her way. Instead, I took a deep breath and forced myself to stay on track.

“Her real name is Jolene Kaplan. I think so, anyways. It’s the only logical explanation. I don’t know anything about her since I haven’t had time to run an extensive search but I _do_ know that Jolene was Bucky’s target. Whether it was for a hit, a kidnapping, whatever the motive was behind it, she was the target. My guess was Hydra was planning to attack while she left the building or in the transition from her handlers inside the engineering firm to DCGSE. It wasn’t specified fully what the assassin’s purpose was or why they were even running the mission. Bucky doesn’t really remember any specifics from the mission, either. He said he was in the middle of briefing when everything went to hell, or whatever the fuck happened. Kotevsky, the Russian, is also someone he remembers. Not much, but he remembers him from somewhere cold. I’m taking a wild guess that Kotevsky may have been around during Bucky’s time with the Soviets but I don’t know. I won’t know for certain for a while.” All of the words came out in a rush as I attempted to get all of the information out while being as convincing as possible. When I finished, I was panting slightly.

There was a stretch of silence as they glanced at my face, then Bucky’s, then at each other before Tony finally broke the quiet. “How long will you need?”

“Well…” I stalled as I pondered how to broach the touchy subject. While I hesitated, a low and throaty sound pulled my attention away for a second. All four of our heads turned to see Bucky glaring at me with such fervor I was surprised I didn’t melt into a puddle right there. I rolled my eyes at him as I turned back to my audience. “In order for me to really make any sort of headway with this, I need to–”

“ _No_ ,” Bucky suddenly snarled and I whirled on him with a deadly glare.

“Honestly, this doesn’t concern you. So if you could let me speak without _rudely_ interrupting me, I’d greatly appreciate it.” Bucky glowered at me, his entire body stiff and wound tight. But I didn’t care. If information was wanted, it had to be done.

“What the hell is going on?” Natasha snapped, obviously not pleased to be kept in the dark the way she was. I shot a warning glare to Bucky as I turned back to the three of them, all in varying degrees of confusion and bewilderment.

“I can find information on Kotevsky and Jolene via the regular channels but it might not be enough. I want, no _need_ , to get a hold of the mission files for the Winter Soldier and–”

“No,” Tony interrupted, “absolutely not.”

My jaw dropped. “But, you don’t understand–”

“Are you out of your mind?” Natasha hissed, suddenly catching on too.

“Yes, but I don’t see how that matters–”

“What are you talking about, Tony?” Steve cut in, throwing me a stern look as I began to protest louder.

“In order to get to the Winter Soldier mission files, darling Hannah here needs to infiltrate a Hydra base and–”

“Absolutely _not_.” Steve wheeled to face me with a heavy scowl etched on his face. I opened my mouth to argue but he didn’t let me. “Hannah if you think for one second I’m going to let you go on a mission all by yourself to a Hydra base you’re out of your mind.”

“I won’t be alone,” I shot back. “I’ll take someone with me. Natasha can go.”

“No I won’t,” Natasha deadpanned and I glared at her. _Some friend_ , I thought to myself.

“You are not sacrificing other people for this…this _suicide_ mission.” I could tell he was trying his absolute hardest not to yell at me but it seemed with each word he was getting closer and closer to failing at that. “Goddammit Hannah, you’re smarter than this.”

“Honest to God, can we please relax,” I interrupted with a sigh. “It was just an idea, okay? Obviously I was going to run it by you first. I’m just laying out my options here.”

“No it’s not,” a voice piped up behind me. When I turned around Bucky’s eyes were on me as he muttered out the words that I was pretty sure would end my life. “She was planning to go on the mission with no mission plan, whether you agreed or not.”

“ _No mission plan?_ ” Steve all but screeched as my jaw dropped.

“You mother–” I didn’t have a chance to finish my sentence before Steve absolutely _unloaded_ on me.

“What the hell is a matter with you? Do you have no care for your own safety at all? Or the fact that this is _Hydra_ here? This isn’t something you do behind a computer screen, Hannah. This is real, this is real life and you’re treating it like some sort of _joke_. Do you even understand the repercussions? Do you understand what would happen to you if you were captured?”

“I wasn’t even going to do it!” I protested. Total lie. It was such a bad lie I had trouble executing it. I justified myself but saying that if I _didn’t_ lie, Steve would’ve keeled over from a heart attack. “I swear, I was just throwing ideas around that’s _it_. Jesus, Steve. A little more trust in me, please? I may be reckless but I’m not stupid.”

“I don’t care,” Steve seethed. “You are not to leave this compound, do you understand me? Not unless one of us are with you and it’s cleared by me _first_. I’m not kidding around with this, Hannah. Whatever this information is, we will find it some other way.”

“Okay,” I acquiesced with a nod of my head. Steve released a breath as he stared at me with hard eyes. “I swear Steve; I’ll stay inside the compound.”

He seemed to accept that as his shoulders relaxed a bit and he nodded. “Good,” he responded gruffly. “Now, go. Get to work. You said we had twelve hours, right?”

I nodded as Tony stepped up with a light touch to my shoulder. “C’mon, kid. We better get started now.” He flashed me an encouraging smile. He had been on the other end of Steve’s temper tantrums too many times so I knew he would be the safest person to go with. I bit my lip and kept my head down as I passed around Steve and Natasha. As soon as I was behind their backs, I whipped my head up and gave Bucky the most murderous glare I could muster. His eyes were on me and there wasn’t a single shred of remorse or apology in his gaze. In fact, he looked a little smug. I snarled quietly before Tony’s voice broke my stare.

“Your lab or mine?” He grinned. He already knew the answer. _Nobody_ went into my lab except for me. No exception.

“Yours.” I answered stiffly. I tried to control my anger but it was taking _everything_ to not turn around and give Bucky a piece of my mind. He had the audacity to call _me_ untrustworthy? What a fucking hypocrite. God, if I ever saw that two-faced bastard again I’d–

“Hey,” Tony’s voice broke my thoughts as I suddenly realized we were already in the elevator. “You alright?”

“Yeah, of course.” I lied straight through my teeth as I flashed him a smile. “Sorry, just thinking about where to start.”

“How about those phone calls? I want to hear this politician’s voice when he isn’t sniveling like a little kid.”

I snorted as I leaned back against the elevator. But when I shut my eyes, all I saw was Bucky’s smug face.

***

“Motherfucker,” I swore as I stared at my five computer monitors. Series of texts ran through on the screen, all blinking with keywords that made no fucking sense.

I had managed to uncover all of the deleted calls and scrubbed audio files between the politician and Kotevsky. Deciphering them was pretty easy too, but all of a sudden the bastards decided to use their brains and started speaking in code. I was in the process of trying to decipher their secret language and had gotten nowhere. I had four hours left until this supposed drop somewhere and I was about as close as I was eight hours ago.

_Wedding._

_Gift._

_Reception._

_Bride._

_Groom._

It all would sound like a normal conversation if you were to hear it on the street or in a café. But in the world of espionage and terrorism, this was anything but an innocent conversation.

The wedding, I had deduced so wonderfully, was hopefully the main event with the reception possibly being a rendezvous point afterwards while the gift was perhaps whatever the politician was selling. The bride and groom were what I assumed were codenames for the politician and Kotevsky. Again, there were no facts. Only theory. And that was about as far as I got with that.

I had lasted about ten minutes in Tony’s lab before his horrific need to constantly fill the silence with some sort of irrelevant comment and his horrible messiness forced me out. I tasked him with working on the identity of Kaplan and if there was any connection with Raulson while digging deeper into Kotevsky. I figured that would be more difficult but turns out I was so wrong I embarrassed myself.

Now, I was stuck staring into a sea of code and secret language that looked so goddamn appealing on TV shows but the second it presented itself in real life I questioned every decision that led me to be in my position. I banged my head against the table as I began muttering to myself, sounding certifiably crazy but hey, might as well play the part.

“Wedding…wedding, who the fuck wants to go to a wedding?” _Kotevsky and the politician_ I told myself bitterly and groaned. “Okay, okay,” I muttered to myself with a deep, cleansing breath that sort of sounded like I suffered from whooping cough. “Think. The wedding…what type of wedding?” The politician was fancy and flashy. Even when he was selling secrets, he set the drop at a fancy hotel with all eyes on him and a pretty girl on his arm. He had an expensive taste that was obvious with his financial records. I mean, who spent 500k on a single fucking fountain pen? He used his wealth and riches to show off and intimidate his competition and colleagues – though I wasn’t too sure how intimidating a fountain pen was but hey what the hell did I know. “Someplace fancy, someplace new.”

But I knew Kotevsky wasn’t a pushover. While he had played into the politician’s hand, he still had control. He had the money, he was the payday. And while the politician threw around that he had other buyers lining up, I was sure Kotevsky doubted that. Politicians lie, especially one as slimy as this one. He’s make a compromise, some way that he’d have the advantage. “Home field advantage,” I mumbled. Anyone was more comfortable on their home turf and with a deal like this, I had a feeling that’s exactly what Kotevsky would want.

Tony had managed to figure out that Kotevsky was in fact Russian, but the rest of his files were heavily encrypted. He and FRIDAY were still working on trying to decrypt it. I felt a zip of excitement down my spine. I was close, I could feel it. My fingers typed furiously as I tried to figure out where there was going to be some sort of grand opening of someplace rich and fancy as all hell. I knew the politician – whose name was John Arnold Smith, how much more boring white politician who fucks anything that breathes because his wife is more of a business relationship rather than a bond of true love and chooses to betray his country because apparently his boring, white, rich life isn’t exciting enough – would want something fancy. A statement. Whatever this deal was, it was worth a billion cash. It would establish him; it would make him a well-known figure in the legal and most definitely the illegal world.

A dozen popped up in the Moscow area and I was able to narrow it down to three. An art gala for some stuffy French-Italian artist who swore God spoke to him through the splatters of his paintbrush, a museum grand opening honoring all of the czars of Russia, and a hotel opening owned by some prince from the Middle East, most likely Israel from the look of it. I knew for a fact that the politician travelled to Russia under a pseudonym. I uploaded his picture to TSA and began scanning all of the images from Sheremetyevo for a match to good ol’ John Smith’s face. The second it popped up, I’d get his passport information and I’d nail the smarmy bastard.

Hopefully. Maybe. This was a perfect example of me thinking that I definitely had the answer when in the end, it was obvious, that I most definitely did not.

The moment the search began, a sharp knock rapped against my door. “Yeah?” I called out.

“Room service,” Tony yelled.

“I didn’t order anything,” I retorted as I drummed my fingers against my table.

“Lemme in, Han, we gotta talk.”

“Not a chance, Stark. Whatever you need to say, send it in an email if it’s that important. If it’s not, it can wait.”

“I prefer face to face communication. It’s good for the soul.”

“Has Pepper got you doing those stupid yoga videos again? You’re starting to sound a true yogi.”

Tony was silent for a moment. “Hannah. I need you to talk to Barnes.”

I snorted as my mouth twisted into a scowl. “Forget it. I don’t do interrogations.”

“This isn’t an interrogation. Think of it at as a friendly conversation at a bar. Except you’re not in a bar, you’re in a holding cell. And it’s not really a conversation, you’ve got scripted questions and what not.”

“So basically an interrogation.” I deadpanned.

“Sure, sure, nuances,” Tony admitted nonchalantly and I rolled my eyes. “Hannah, if we want to make any headway we need to get Barnes to talk.”

“Alright, send Steve in. Or Natasha, our resident expert on interrogations.”

“Already done, Han. Even I went in. He won’t say a word. This guy has been around for almost a hundred years, and about seventy of that was spent with Hydra. He doesn’t even flinch anymore.”

“So why the hell do you think I’m going to make a difference?”

“Because he talked to you.”

I swore under my breath. God, _fuck Bucky Barnes_. “Listen, Tony. I’d love to be the knight in shining armor here but honestly he didn’t even say much. And I’m pretty sure that’s a one-time deal.”

“That’s bullshit Han and you and I both know it,” Tony snapped. “You’re our best shot at this. C’mon kid, show us how versatile you really are.”

“Fuck off,” I muttered. I didn’t want to do this. I _shouldn’t_ do this. Bucky Barnes was none of my business. He helped me once that was it. And of course _that_ backfired because apparently _confidentiality_ meant nothing to him. But Tony was right. I had just barely made some sort of headway after eight hours of nothing; he had only been able to find Kotevsky was from Russia, around Moscow but nothing too serious. Nothing to launch an investigation. We were dry, we were desperate. And unfortunately, we needed Bucky. I sighed heavily and dragged myself out of my chair as I took one last longing glance at my monitors.

When I opened the door Tony jumped to attention and I wasn’t surprised to see Steve loitering at the end of the hallway trying to act nonchalant. “There she is! What’s it like to see actual sunlight?”

I glanced up at the fluorescent lighting. “I wouldn’t know,” I shot back. Tony flashed me a grin as I frowned and snatched the case file from his hand. It was painfully thin and I had to hold back my frustrated sigh. “Alright Flag Pole,” I called out to Steve as I walked down the hall. “Let’s go do an interrogation.”

“I’m going with you?” He glanced at me curiously when I slammed the file into his chest.

“What part of ‘I don’t do interrogations’ did your star-spangled brain not understand?” I shot him a look as I continued down to the elevator. “I’m just going to stand there. I’m not talking to him again.”

“You think it’ll work?” Steve asked his voice incredulous as I jammed the elevator button and willed the elevator doors to never open.

“It’ll have to,” I grumbled as the doors pinged open and a slew of SHIELD agents tumbled out, all moony eyed as they stared at Steve. I rolled my eyes and pushed past them and typed in the code to get us to sub-level.

“Eager?” Steve mused with raised eyebrows but his smile faltered at the poisonous look I threw him.

“Eager to get this over with,” I muttered as I folded my arms. Steve nodded and didn’t say anything else as the door shut. FRIDAY’s pleasant voice spoke about the weather and today’s current events but I didn’t listen. When the doors opened again, Steve stepped out and the floor was just as quiet as it had been when I had first gone down eight hours ago. It was unsettling.

We reached room 12 and Steve punched in the code that swung the vibranium doors open. Once inside, I saw Sam was across the room. He made eye contact with us and walked over, his shoulders stiff.

“He won’t talk, Cap,” Sam muttered, his voice quiet. He sighed heavily and then his eyes met mine, brown irises filled with concern. “You sure you’re ready for this?”

“I’m doing the interrogation,” Steve whispered. Sam seemed shocked as he eyed me curiously. I avoided his gaze as I stared at the cement floor. I moved to the corner of the room as Steve spoke with Sam for a few minutes longer. I kept my eyes on the guards instead of on Bucky, refusing to give him the satisfaction. I didn’t even see Sam walk over to me until his voice was in my ear.

“Why aren’t you running this?” Sam asked. I met his gaze, trying to look confused but he wasn’t having it. I sighed and rested my shoulder against the cold stone wall.

“I don’t want to,” I muttered. “Besides, I’m not adverse in interrogation or any of that shit. This is something you guys do. I’m just a girl with a computer.”

“You’re more than that, and you know it,” Sam frowned as he shot a glance towards Steve. “What’s really going on, baby? You locked Tony, Steve and Nat in here just to speak to Bucky. Now you won’t look at him. What’s going on? If he did something to you, Hannah. We need to know.”

I swallowed thickly as I toed the ground with my sneaker. “He’s just not someone I want to be around. Is that so hard to understand?” I looked at Sam, begging him to drop it. Really, I was just angry at Bucky. He and his big mouth had gotten me ‘grounded’ as Tony said and now the situation was even worse than it had been before. And it pissed me off.

“Okay,” Sam acquiesced and I breathed out a sigh of relief. “That’s not hard to understand. What is hard to understand as that you’re actually trying to pretend that you’re not pissed at him for foiling your master plan.”

I whipped my head to face Sam, who wore the smuggest smile on his face. “What are you talking about?” I hissed.

“I know you don’t believe in best friends or relationships, but as your unofficial best friend who knows you like the back of his hand, I know when you’re mad, baby. And you’re furious.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re not my best friend,” I snapped. “And so what if I’m mad? Doesn’t change anything.”

“No,” Sam mused. “But doesn’t mean you’re not still going to be mad. I also know that this makes you even more motivated to do exactly what you aren’t supposed to do. So, when are you going on this unsanctioned, highly dangerous mission?”

“I’m not,” I shot back and crossed my arms. I didn’t like how Sam was digging into my brain. I knew Wanda was the only one who could actually read brains but I seriously wondered if Sam didn’t possess some ability too. “Besides, I’m grounded, remember? Steve won’t let me out of his sight.”

“Sure he will,” Sam shrugged. “We all know he’ll calm down eventually. And you’ll wait until he does. And that’s when you’ll go. So my only request is, let me know when you go, okay. I’m always down to kick some Hydra ass.”

“Okay, bird-brain,” I rolled my eyes. I turned my attention on Steve as he stood before Bucky. Every muscle in his broad back was stiff, his arms folded in a defensive stance. He was speaking quietly to Bucky, loud enough for the soldier to hear but quiet enough that we couldn’t. I risked a glance at Bucky and saw his eyes were trained on the floor, unblinking and unwavering. I frowned as Steve leaned forward, almost imploring Bucky to look up. The brunette didn’t move a muscle. The only thing that moved was his left hand. There was a slight jerk in his fingers, like an electric shock was going straight through his left hand.

“Have you had any luck with the politician?”

“Smith?” I shook my head. “I’m searching surveillance at Sheremetyevo to see if his face pops up. I alerted TSA too, see if they can get him at departure and had them expand the search to private airfields.”

“Can they do that?” Sam asked.

“Government can track anything.” I muttered. I averted my eyes back to Steve and Bucky. Steve was pacing now and I could see the agitation. From the side profile of his face, his jaw was wired so tight even I could see the muscle tic from where I stood. And my eyesight was shot from staring at a computer screen my whole life. Bucky’s gaze still remained trained on the floor, but his fingers still twitched. It was like he couldn’t look at Steve’s face, even if he wanted to.

“S’kinda weird, y’know?” Sam whispered to me as we both watched Steve and Bucky. “How Bucky won’t look at Steve. It’s like he doesn’t want to believe that’s his best friend.”

Something clicked in my head at Sam’s words. _It’s like he doesn’t even want to believe that’s his best friend_. “What if he doesn’t?” I murmured.

Sam gave me a disbelieving look. “Han, I saw the two of them in Berlin. Bucky never forgot Steve. I mean hell; in Bucharest he protected the damn guy even with his head all over the place. He pulled him out of the water at Triskelion. You don’t forget someone like that, a best friend. They’re with you for life.”

 _They’re with you for life_. “What if he’s doing that now?” I whispered to myself as the pieces came together.

“What?”

“Sam.” I turned to face him. “What if Bucky is protecting Steve now?”

Sam’s brow furrowed. “Han, baby, what are you talking about?”

“He knows. Bucky knows something. He’s not telling Steve. I know it.”

“Alright, alright,” Sam acquiesced. “Talk to me, what are you thinking?”

I caught my lip between my teeth as my brain hurried to fit all of the pieces together and as it did, an image began to form. A very blurry, very sketchy picture that probably didn’t mean anything but it definitely meant something. Maybe.

“Bucky can’t look Steve in the eye. Why?”

Sam shrugged. “Dunno. I think it’s because he can’t.”

I turned to Sam. “He can’t?”

Sam’s face turned dark. “On one of the…trips Steve and I took, we came across a Hydra facility where they had some, uh, soldiers in training if you will. Very early in the process. But they couldn’t look us in the eye, and they wouldn’t speak. We finally figured out they would only speak when addressed _and_ we had to give them permission. It was engrained within them.”

“They saw you as superiors,” I murmured. “The ultimate control.”

Sam nodded. “I think that’s why he can’t look at him. He sees Steve as superior to him.”

I shook my head. “It’s more than that.” I sighed as I began playing with the tips of my hair, tugging and twirling. “Sam, I don’t think he’s not looking at Steve because he views him as his superior. I think he can’t because it’s _Steve_.”

“I don’t follow,” Sam frowned.

I turned to face him. My voice became hushed and faster as I got more excited. “You said it yourself, Sam. The type of friendship Steve and Bucky have – it’s for life. _Nothing_ could break it. With that type of closeness, I mean, they know everything. What if Bucky is afraid that Steve will read him like a book? Know exactly what Bucky is hiding without Bucky having to say a single word.”

“So, you think this whole not looking each other in the eye thing is because Bucky is _scared_? That it has _nothing_ to do with Hydra?”

I shook my head. “I think if Steve were to give Bucky an order, Bucky would follow. He’s been made to follow orders. But he can make decisions. He _chose_ to talk to me. I didn’t tell him to talk to me, I never gave an order. I merely asked. And he responded. So he can make his own decisions, but maybe only to a certain point.”

Sam nodded slowly, as if the puzzle was just beginning to form in his head too. “What if Bucky doesn’t see you as his superior?” I whipped my head to him and narrowed my eyes, a warning for Sam to tread very carefully. “I’m not saying you’re less than him, baby,” Sam defended himself quickly with an assuring smile. “All I’m saying is Steve kind of screams the whole _I’m the boss I make the orders_ aura. You’re much more laid back. Maybe Bucky felt that he didn’t have to answer to you, that you weren’t there to give him orders.”

I relaxed my rigid stance as I thought about what Bucky said. It was interesting theory and I struggled to make sense of it all. I turned to Steve and found him talking to Bucky again, his face closer to the electromagnetic wall.

I stepped away from Sam and moved closer to Steve, careful not to startle Steve. “Steve,” I prompted softly. He looked away and I was floored by the look of pure exhaustion on his face but it melted away into impassiveness as he walked towards me.

“What is it Hannah?”

“Steve,” I swallowed. “You need to order Bucky to look at you.”

There was a beat of silence. “What?” His empty voice made me shift uncomfortably. I felt like I was asking someone to kidnap a child. And essentially, I guess I was. If the child was freewill and the ability to make your own decision.

“You have to,” I murmured.

“Hannah. I am not going to force him to do something.” His voice was fierce as he bent down to my face, his blue eyes chips of pure ice.

“Steve,” I forced myself to meet his chilling stare. “I wouldn’t ask you to do this if I didn’t have to. He knows something. Trust me, please.”

My heart cracked as his face twisted into one of pure anguish. “Hasn’t he been ordered around enough?” He asked his voice tight with pain.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. Steve nodded and I watched as his face turned to stone and his voice became hard as rock, void of emotion.

“Bucky, I need you to look at me.” His voice wavered but Bucky didn’t. I flashed him a sideward glance. His shoulders stiffened and it almost looked like he was bracing himself. “Soldier, look at me. Now.”

Bucky turned his head. But it looked like someone was pulling an iron chain and he was doing everything he could to fight back. But when his eyes met Steve’s, I felt as if I had been sucker punched.

The look of pure hatred that scorched in Bucky’s eyes made my stomach churn. But Steve’s gaze didn’t falter. “I know what you’re doing,” he murmured. “Don’t do this, I need to know.” Bucky didn’t look away, but there was so much more than anger in his eyes. I had never seen a look so loaded before in my life. “What are you trying to hide? Who are you trying to protect? Is it Kotevsky, is it Hydra, who is it?”

There it was. The finger twitch. The moment _Kotevsky_ left Steve’s mouth, Bucky reacted. It was slight, almost invisible. But it was there. I turned my head to look at Sam, whose eyes were narrowed. He saw too.

“You know,” I whispered, my voice shell-shocked. Bucky didn’t look at me, but I know he heard me. Steve snapped his head down as his brow furrowed into a knot of confusion. I ignored him as I stepped forward. “What is it, what is it about Kotevsky that you know?” Bucky’s gaze didn’t waver and I felt that tiny flutter of anger in the pit of my stomach. I swallowed to try and calm myself down as I spoke softly. “Who is Kotevsky, Bucky? What is he going to do, is it the drop tonight?” Bucky turned his face away, but I saw. The slight tremor of fear that skittered across his face. Right before his features turned to marble. I reeled back as it dawned on me. “The drop…you know. You know about the drop.”

He didn’t answer, his face stoic. Like a statue. “Jesus,” Steve whispered behind me.

I ignored him and dropped down to Bucky’s level, tilting my head as I tried to meet his gaze, no matter how hard he tried to avoid mine. “Bucky. Tell me, please. I need to know.” The silence that followed was deafening. “What are you so afraid of?” I prompted softly. He finally met my gaze, and it was pleading. Begging me to drop it, to walk away. My breath stuttered in my chest but I refused to look away. “I will find out,” I told him firmly and willed my voice to remain steady. “You know it’s just a matter of time.”

“I know. I’m just hoping you run out,” he murmured, his voice rough. I frowned heavily as I gripped my hands tightly together. There was that flare of anger again that threatened to lash out. I took a deep breath and willed myself to calm down.

“Why?” I whispered. “What do you know? Bucky, please. Something is happening; something big and we need to stop it.”

“No you don’t,” he gritted his teeth. “Please, drop it. It’s not important.”

“Yes it is,” I argued as my face grew hot. I was getting angrier and angrier by the second. “If it’s worth a billion dollars then it must be pretty damn important.”

Bucky winced. “It isn’t. Let it _go_.”

I held back a snarl as I stood up suddenly, my glare fixated on Bucky. “He knows,” I muttered to Steve. He nodded as I turned on my heel and stormed out of the room. “Useless,” I muttered to myself the whole way up to Tony’s lab. “Absolutely, utterly, useless.”

I slammed the keypad outside Tony’s lab and jammed in the code. Out of my peripheral I saw the red lines scan my face and a red dot appeared. “Unconfirmed facial scan. Please turn to face the–”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” I shouted as I turned to bang on Tony’s door as the stupid scanner kept reading my face. “Tony, open this fucking door or so help me–”

The heavy door swung open as Tony stood before me, a shit-eating grin on his face. “You were saying?”

I growled as I stomped past him, throwing a middle finger to the scanner and the disembodied voice. “Kotevsky,” I spit out. “What do you have on him?”

“Jesus, Barnes really got your knickers all in a twist,” Tony snickered but stopped the moment I glared at him. He cleared his throat quickly before he sauntered towards his monitors, ignoring the piles and piles of junk that threatened to suffocate the spacious lab. “Nothing. I ran his face through every government operated security camera in the entirety of Moscow and found nothing. I don’t think he is in Moscow, Han.”

“No, he is,” I muttered. “Smith is way too over the top. Moscow is the capital, it holds the most importance. That’s where he’ll want to be.”

Tony snorted. “God, you sound like my shrink. Watching too much Criminal Minds lately?”

I rolled my eyes. “No, I just hang out with you too much,” I quipped. Tony attempted to look affronted but I could see the smile fighting its way.

“What have you got so far?” He asked as he plopped down on his leather chair.

I sighed and shook my head. “A bunch of coded conversations. I’ve pretty much guessed that the wedding means the main event – maybe a grand opening of some sort. The reception is the actual drop-off. But I’m also pulling this out of my ass so really I have no idea. I have searches running for his face at Sheremetyevo and through TSA. If he’s cocky enough he’d go through the international airports.”

“You don’t think he’d use a private airfield?”

I shrugged. “I’m hoping he doesn’t. Even if he does I have the ones that he frequents under surveillance. I’m really hoping his ego comes in the way of his intelligent thinking and somehow we get a hit.”

“So really, we have nothing.”

“Exactly,” I sighed as I leaned against the table.

“Barnes came up dry?”

A sour look came across my face. “Drier than the Sahara. He didn’t give us jack shit. He just said it wasn’t important or whatever the hell that means.”

Tony scowled as he shook his head. “He’s hiding something,” he muttered into his coffee cup.

“Or protecting something,” I added.

“We just don’t know what or who,” Tony finished and we both shared a grim look. Bucky was the missing puzzle piece. He was just the piece that refused to cooperate. Just as I was sitting and contemplating all of the ways that I could kill someone without getting caught, my phone dinged. I pulled it out of my pocket and when I saw the notification, I jumped up and nearly catapulted myself to the nearest computer.

“I found him,” I explained to Tony before he asked. He perked up instantly and came to stand beside me as I sent the information to Tony’s monitor. When the successful search popped up, I almost laughed.

“Is…is that a fake mustache?” Tony sputtered as he tried to hide his laughter. There was Smith, in all his mediocre glory, wearing the fakest mustache known to man and this god awful fedora that made Patrick Stump look fashionable.

“Jesus, I hate politicians,” I moaned as I minimized his picture. “Alright, he arrived at Sheremetyevo about four hours ago. He then–” I followed CCTV throughout the airport before I found him climbing into a town car, “–gets into a town car which is taking him…somewhere. That I’m going to find out.”

“That’s what I pay you for,” Tony remarked sarcastically but I ignored him. I ran the plates of the town car and found it linked to a private limo company that contracted out limos and cars to very high-end and prissy clientele.

“God, do I love wire transfers,” I grinned as I followed the bank and found an account in Switzerland tied to the name _Noah Trilnoj Dohms_.

“What kind of name is that?” Tony snorted as I entered that name into the limo company clientele list that I oh so conveniently hacked into. “Who names their kid some plain name like _Noah_ and then give them a middle name like _Trilnoj_?”

“I mean, your parents named you Anthony so you’re not far behind on the whole plain name list.”

Tony scoffed. “I’ll have you know that Anthony means highly praiseworthy. I’m anything but plain.”

“Yeah, but the Greeks associated Anthony with _flower_ , so like you said,” I turned to him and gave him a mocking smile, “I guess you really are anything but plain, hm?”

Tony’s mouth opened and closed – sort of like a flower in bloom – as he searched for an answer. I smirked as the monitor dinged and the ever so plain Noah Trilnoj blinked at me. “You know,” I mused, “maybe I should make you a flower crown. Those are highly praiseworthy, aren’t they?”

“Shut up,” Tony snarled and I couldn’t help but laugh as I pulled up Noah’s sheet.

“Well,” I hummed. “Looks like Mr. Extravagant is staying at an equally extravagant hotel.”

Tony leaned over my shoulder, seemingly forgetting my quip. “Ararat Park Hyatt Hotel.” He rolled his eyes. “How American.”

“Well, he is American,” I looked over at Tony with a raised eyebrow, “and are we going to forget the little fact that you won’t stay anywhere unless there is a Marriott stationed nearby?”

“Hey, I like the food. Plus they have the softest towels.”

“Do they really?” My voice dripped with sarcasm.

“Oh, definitely. Softer than a baby’s bottom. Especially when they’re snuggled around your–”

“Yep! Okay, moving on,” I yelled, waving my arms in the air. Ignoring Tony’s amused chuckle, I easily moved through the servers at the Hyatt and easily found where Noah was staying. “He’s in the Winter Garden Suite, checked in about…two hours ago.”

“Do you ever wonder if your fingers are going to fall off?” I whipped my head around to stare at Tony, my eyes narrowed as he shrugged nonchalantly. “I mean, you type so fast and practically drill your fingers into my poor, fragile keyboard. I’m just wondering if it’s possible for them to actually just _fall off_ , y’know.”

“ _God_ , you’re hopeless,” I rolled my eyes towards the sky and pushed back from his desk. “And your keyboard is a projection onto your desk, jackass. I hardly doubt it’s seeing some damage.”

“The whole table vibrates when you type. The whole _table_.”

I tutted softly in mock sadness as I patted his cheek. “My apologies, _il mio fiore_. I’ll make sure to send your desk a thank you basket for putting up with my brutal ways.”

I didn’t give Tony a chance to answer before I sprinted off, snagging a tablet in the process. All I heard was Tony’s voice bouncing through the lab as he yelled: “Did you just call me _flower?!_ ”

I pulled out my phone and dialed Sam’s number. He picked up on the first ring. “What’s shakin’ bacon?”

“Smith just checked into the Winter Garden Suite at the Ararat Park Hyatt Hotel about two hours ago. I’m cross checking now but I’m pretty sure there is an art opening about five miles from there tonight.”

“Hey, HP found something,” Sam said away from the receiver. He was back within the moment. “You think this could be him?”

“Oh, I know it’s the slimy bastard. He’s under the alias of Noah Trilnoj Dohms–”

“What kind of name is _Noah Trilnoj Dohms_?”

“Oh God, not you too,” I sighed heavily as I nearly dropped the tablet in disappointment.

“No, but seriously Han. Think about it. I mean…Noah and then–”

“Moving on, Sam,” I spoke sharply as I reached my cave. “He’s wearing this god awful mustache which is really what you should be focusing on.”

“ _Mustache_? Like Tony’s mustache bad? Or me during the 80s bad?”

“Try Charlie Chaplin bad.” Sam whistled beneath his breath and I had to stop myself from laughing. “I’m sending a photo to you and Steve now. I’m inside the GPS of his town car so if the key even comes near the car I’ll know about it. I’m working on the security system to see if they’ve got cameras inside the suite, I’ll let you know if I find anything.”

“Alright, you’re the best baby,” Sam cooed into the phone and I rolled my eyes as I hung up.

I set down the tablet that was connected to the GPS system of the town car as I brought my monitors back to life. I quickly wrote a code and began hacking into the security system, which took me all of twenty minutes. I soon found myself in the Winter Garden Suite where the lovely Johnny was staying. Nothing was really going on, it seemed like the security detail was completely relaxed, some of them even conversing. They obviously had no worries. I tapped into the audio and began downloading all of the audio while I let it play into my earpiece.

Nothing interesting was happening, just quiet murmuring. Smith was nowhere to be seen. But even then, I could _definitely_ hear him, and whoever he was with. And from the looks of it, so could his unamused body guards.

“ _On zvuchit kak slon_.” One of the guards muttered to the other. After a quick Google Translate into what he said because shockingly, I wasn’t fluent in every language, I nearly choked on my spit. _It sounds like an elephant_.+

As I scanned over the security tapes, heading back to when they first entered the room, my eyes caught a flutter of white that fell to the ground when Smith opened his briefcase. I quickly froze the image and zoomed in. It turned out to be a piece of card stock with elegant script in what looked like silver cursive.

 ◊              ◊              ◊

THE PLEASURE OF YOUR COMPANY

IS REQUESTED FOR THE EARLY SHOWING OF

##  **_Treasure Nukus_ **

_Named after IV Savitsky_

MONDAY March 16, 2017

FROM 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM

THE PUSHKIN STATE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

_FORMAL COCKTAIL ATTIRE_

◊              ◊              ◊

“The wedding,” I whispered with an exhaling breath. My fingers shook with excitement as I quickly searched _Treasure Nukus_. It was some set of paintings from the State Museum that apparently was a great representation of Asian culture. Either way, it was big. One quick sweep of the invitation list told me it was extremely secretive and a very expensive list. Big money was going into this showing and it was just an opportunity for people to show off their wealth and importance. It was Smith’s playing field.

I immediately rang Sam. “What’s cookin’ good lookin’?”

“I found it.” I practically panted out like a rabid dog. “I found the wedding. Well, I think so. It’s the closest that I’ve gotten and it makes sense because…well, it just does. It has to. If it doesn’t you have full permission to punch me in the face.”

Sam laughed. “I’ll remember that, baby. Now, tell me. Where is this lovely wedding that I have a feeling me and Steve are invited to?”

I grinned as I relayed what I found to Sam. “So, essentially, I’m shipping you off to sunny Moscow.”

“I’ve always loved how the Kremlin looks in the middle of the night,” Sam shot back unenthusiastically. “So, you’re all packed baby?”

“Packed?” I narrowed my eyes suspiciously as I clicked the monitor and let the video feeds play at real time.

“Well yeah, someone’s gotta go say hi to the good politician.”

I nearly dropped my phone. “I’m sorry…what did you just say?” I nearly screeched. “Are you out of your damn mind? What the hell have you been huffing down there?”

“Baby, we already sent Nat in so he’d recognize her and know we’re onto him. Wanda is too noticeable after Lagos. Hill is too in love with Fury to leave his side for more than ten minutes. So, that leaves you HP.”

I sputtered as I desperately grasped on some way to get myself out of this. “I’ll die out there Sam…I can’t, you can’t do this to me. I do _not_ spy. I’m an awful spy.”

“Baby, you’re the best damn spy the world has ever seen.”

“Yes, _behind_ a computer screen. _Away_ from people.” I pressed my hand to my forehead and I immediately felt it break into a sweat. “God, are you trying to completely botch this mission?”

“Not yet,” his grin could be heard through the phone. I huffed out a breath as I stared at my monitors miserably. I suddenly had a sickening image of Smith’s wrinkly hands running up and down my back as his thin, papery lips pressed against my ear. I was gonna throw up.

“No, nope, absolutely not.” I shook my head and shot up as I began to pace. “I am not, no way. Send someone else. I quit, I resign, and I’m faking my death if I have to.”

“Oh, come on Han…” Sam’s voice faded away as a flicker of movement caught my eye on one of the feeds. It was the one that was trained on the living room, yet the hallway that led to Smith’s room began to show someone walking down it. A man walked out, shirtless with the top button of his pants undone. His dress shirt suddenly appeared as a pair of hands pulled it onto his broad shoulders. The gaunt body of John Arnold Smith emerged; his thin smile caused a shudder to dance down my spine.  But what happened next caused me to shoot up with a shocked gasp.

Smith leaned down and pressed a hard kiss to the lips of the man, his fingers brushing over his face.

“Oh my God,” I breathed out before a smile lit up on my face. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my _God_.”

“Hannah, what is going on? Talk to me, what happened?” Sam’s frantic voice suddenly registered in my mind as I grinned widely.

“I think the real question is: are _you_ packed, Sam?”

There was a heartbeat of silence before Sam spoke. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” I tapped my finger to my chin as I watched Smith say goodbye. “It seems to me that Smith doesn’t really _like_ redheads, or brunettes, or _girls_ , for that matter.” I could literally hear the thoughts clicking in Sam’s brain. “And Samuel…it seems to me that you are _exactly_ his type.”

“No,” he immediately said. “Nope, not happening. Nice try Hannah. You’re lying, I know you are.”

“Am I?” I gloated as I sat back. “Besides, would I ever lie about someone’s sexual orientation? I may be a cold-hearted bitch, but I still have a heart.”

There were voices in the background and I heard Sam hiss, “Don’t agree with _her_. There has to be another way. No way, this isn’t happening.”

I held back my laughter as I watched Smith wave goodbye as the man left the suite. I had to make sure to send Smith a thank you card after all of this.

“So, baby,” I leaned forward in my chair with a wicked grin, “What color suit are _you_ going to wear?”


End file.
